Evangelia - nn help!

Litsa is a diminutive (LIT-sa) and you could also use Effie (EH-fee).

I know you’re not keen but I think this is a gorgeous name! I much prefer the hard G pronunciation.

Vani ?

Think you'd get both Eh-vi and Ee-vi if it's spelled Evi. If you spell it Evvie that might help although seeing it written the vv looks like a w so it might get misread as Ewie...

I think Ellie works, not just because of the first letter but you also have the sound in the middle of the name - EvangELIa. In fact, you could spell it Eli or Elli.

If you call her Eva but want to pronounce it Evva, you will have to correct people on pronunciation intially, but people will get used to it. DD has a friend called Ava which is usually pronounced Ay -va in the UK, but her friend is pronounced Ah-va. She does not find it problematic (and is now 20), although we are in London with all sorts of different names and spellings from different backgrounds so maybe people are more used to different spellings and pronunciation of names.
I think if i was you i would go for Elli or Evvi or Lia or Evan. They work best.

@InceyWinceySpidy , indeed.

It would be like 'Here's our son Theophilus Petros Ioannidis, we'll be calling him Harry'

But Kitty is one of the standard shortenings of Katherine.

Not the same as trying to bodge shortening Evangalia to Lily.

Evie would be pronounced E- vee if you're in the UK. We have Polish friends who say EH-vee which doesn't go down well. 😂

You are right about the nick name tho, if that's what parents use and what the child knows herself as then it does become their preferred name.

But, I still don't understand why you would choose a name you dislike to prevent yourself (the adult) being bullied by family. Instead, to give yourself an easy life you're picking a name that looks like a typo and that your child will constantly need to correct /explain. Seems very foolish to me.

Evangeline or Evangelina is the English version of Evangelia (which I’m assuming is Greek?). So let family call your dd Evangelia but put Evangelina down on the birth certificate/passport/school.
Call your dd Lia for short

But, like others have said call your baby a name you like. You did it with the first and get bullied you may as well do it for the second cos the bullying won’t stop either way

@ZoyaTheDestroyer I think maybe you took me wrong. No swipes were intended I assure you. I was just chatting away. Not meaning to offend anybody.

What about the poor child? Why would you saddle her with an unpleasant name to satisfy bullies? Isn't that just passing the problem on the her? Why don't you just stand up for yourself and your child?

What about Angel?

@Hadtocomment , I didn't choose what i got called. The name's not that long, and might compare to something like Nicola or Angela.

@Hadtocomment , So no you can't control but a parent shouldn't be trying to control.
But it's the parents giving the name in the first place.

I wouldn’t ‘have you do’ anything @Hadtocomment so that swipe was unnecessary. I’m asking you politely not to confuse the matter further by making up your own terminology.

Just to add @DuchessOfSausage it could be our experiences are a bit different as your full name is obviously very long and perhaps either very formal sounding or a bit unweildly in everyday speech. If a family is insisting on other relatives calling Elizabeth "Elizabeth" at all times, I can understand they probably come up with their own shortenings. Because it's four syllables and quite a mouthful for everyday speech. But if you have your own shortening or preferred diminutive already, I think it's different.

@DuchessOfSausage This is my point though. Nicknames and shortenings are different like this. If someone says I'm Will people are unlikely to call him Bill instead. If someone is William then people are likely to say Will though as clearcut shortenings like that (as opposed to crazy diminutives as @ZoyaTheDestroyer would have me call them like Daisy for Margaret) are what people use to denote friendship or informality or just friendliness.

So no you can't control but a parent shouldn't be trying to control. The usual situation is a parent insisting on a longer name like Stephen when everyone else says Steve and the parent looks a bit precious about it all as it comes across as trying to force everyone into formality. But it's not the same thing as when you already have a used "dimutive" like "Will" rather than "Bill" or "Beth" rather than "Lizzie". If you insist on something very unusual that noone really knows for the name like "Eff" rather than "Steve" for Stephen, yes then you'll likely have problems. But even then it'll just be treated like a nickname, so if you use it all the time, people use it.

I have a long name and a shorter name. Everyone calls me the shorter name. Noone ever calls me the longer name. That's the way I like it and it's the way it's always been. My parents have "no control" but I do.

@Hadtocomment , you don't have much control over what nicknames people use. If you have a long name it will get shortened. Even if you insist on the full name, some will shorten it anyway.

My name is several syllables, and my parents insisted it was used in full. I don't think my mother ever really liked it.
I have relatives who didn't like my name and call me something else.
As an adult, I am only known as a diminutive of my name.
The full name is one that gets mispronounced. I quite like it but it's a PITA at times.

@Goldblend , Evi is pronounced Evvy and id Dutch. I know one, and most people say Eevy not Evvy. Evie is so popular now that it is unlikely that many will say it how you intend.

If you are determined to use the name, I'd call the baby something like Lucy (or your preferred name) Evangelia or Evangelia Lucy, and use the name Lucy.

I don't recommend going by a middle name normally as people like GP receptionists assume that the first name is the one used and will call out that one. They will almost invariably mispronounce it.

So poor little Lucy will sit there and probably not realise that when they call Evanjeelia Blend they mean her.

@Goldblend Evangelia looks like a typo. I think people won't know quite how to pronounce it or on which syllable the emphasis should go. Wouldn't Evangelina be better?

@Hadtocomment All the more reason not to introduce a whole new term, I’d say!

Hardly! More like very interested in names and with a pedantic streak!

My son has an unusual name that looks a little bit like a more common name and people misread it all the time, including very clever doctors

@Bubblyb00b sometimes it's useful to have a longer name and a less formal name. Maybe to distinguish between the formal you and the informal you. Not all of us want to do this, but some do.

I think @ZoyaTheDestroyer is right in reminding people they are jumping to what they know and are familiar with a lot of the time. There are names from all sorts of cultures and people maybe should stop and think before accusing something of being made up just because they haven't heard it before. It is a bit disrespectful to do this.

@ZoyaTheDestroyer I take your point. But I was trying to distinguish between names that were originally shortenings or derived from other shortenings and nicknames. I admit that not all names I'm calling "shortenings" are shorter!

I think "diminutive" though is a bit of a confusing word that people don't necessarily understand as there are constant back and forths about what a nickname is versus a shortening or a dimuntive on here. Perhaps it's more like the "formal" name and the "informal" name. Pet names, informal names, names for children versus their parents or grandparents etc.

@ZoyaTheDestroyer you sound very knowledgeable and intelligent. I feel stoopid

I also don't know why you would have a name you will not use in everyday life? She will never be referred to as "Evangelia" unless she misbehaves ))